Yosemite Compromising User Privacy Through Spotlight Search Feature

Apple OS X YosemiteSpotlight Search FeatureDisclaimerOther fixes in OS X Yosemite

While the Yosemite has been received well by the Apple users, but a section of the users including privacy advocates have panned Apple for compromising the users privacy in the latest version of OS X Yosemite.

Spotlight Search Feature

Critics and pro privacy advocates pointed out that Yosemite sends location information to Apple by default via the Spotlight search feature.  This feature which runs by default can severely compromise their privacy, they say. Within hours after its release on Oct, 17, the tech forums, social networks like Facebook and Twitter were filled with complaints about the default Spotlight Search feature.  Users began reporting that highly specific location data was being sent from their machines back to Apple which was a strict no no for them. Spotlight is a powerful search function incorporated in OS X Yosemite that gives high quality search results to the Mac OS X user from Mac, iTunes, the App Store and the Web. The problem is that for this superb feature to work, data needs to be transmitted and collected at Apple servers.  So by default, when a user has location services on the Mac enabled, some of the data from searches, including location information, is sent to Apple. Though this feature is enabled by default, users can disable this function in the Preferences section of OS X.

Disclaimer

Apple on its part has put a serious disclaimer for the users of Yosemite, which users should read before panning Apple. Ashkan Soltani, an independent consultant and privacy researcher, said on Twitter that the changes in Yosemite were a serious privacy problem.

— ashkan soltani (@ashk4n) October 20, 2014

Other fixes in OS X Yosemite

Apart from the above fact, Yosemite has managed to remain a trouble free release for Apple.  It also includes fixes for dozens of remote code execution vulnerabilities. For the Bash Bug worries, Apple has included a patch for the Bash Shellshock vulnerability as well as fixes for flaws in a number of components, such as the app sandbox, IOKit, the OS X kernel and many others. One of the more serious issues fixed in this release is a problem with the 802.1x implementation that could allow an attacker to get the user’s credentials. Apple has also fixed the high risk vulnerability in the way that OS X handled altered apps.